NORTHERN IRELAND (Hansard, 27 February 1973)

§ Q2. Mr. Orme
asked the Prime Minister if he will make an official visit to Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

§ The Prime Minister
I have at present no plans for a further visit to Londonderry.

§ Mr. Orme
If the Prime Minister visits Northern Ireland, and particularly Londonderry, will he make a speech in which he makes a clear distinction between industrial action in this country and terrorist action in Northern Ireland or from whichever quarter it comes? In that regard will he repudiate the statement by his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland at Penrith on Sunday and tell the House clearly whether or not that speech represented Government policy?

§ The Prime Minister
What my right hon. Friend was saying in his speech was a very straightforward point: that his responsibility in Northern Ireland was to try to prevent people from being oppressed by force. It is the responsibility of the Government to protect the weak members of the community, such as the aged and the lower-paid—[Interruption.]—who are being harmed by industrial action.

§ Mr. Kilfedder
Would it not be the wish of my right hon. Friend that the news media throughout the world, instead of broadcasting wild and false allegations about the security forces which are doing a noble task in Northern Ireland, should expose the murderous terrorism of the IRA and its cowardly callousness, which was sadly demonstrated at the weekend when a 10-year-old boy was murdered while playing in the garden at the back of his home on the Creggan Estate in Londonderry? [Interruption.] This is not a matter for jokes from the Opposition. The young boy accidently triggered off a landmine which had been deliberately placed there by members of the IRA who are totally indifferent to human life.

§ The Prime Minister
Very full accounts of this terrible incident have appeared in the Press and the House will agree that it was a deplorable incident The Provisional IRA has now acknowledged responsibility for it. What is also deplorable is that the IRA is now attempting to blame the Army for not defusing the bomb before it blew up the young lad when in fact the bomb was intended to blow up the Army. The whole House will agree about the terrible nature of the incident.

§ Mr. Merlyn Rees
In view of what the hon. Member for Down, North (Mr. Kilfedder) has said in his supplementary question about the terrible incident in Londonderry, was it not a mistake to equate the action of terrorists with the action of people going about their business of industrial action?

§ The Prime Minister
I must correct the hon. Member. My right hon. Friend was not equating terrorists with—[HON. MEMBERS: "Yes, he was."] I would ask the House to read the text of the speech which my right hon. Friend—

§ Mr. Raphael Tuck
It looks jolly like it.

§ The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman says it looks jolly like it but perhaps he will read the full text and he will see that this is not the case. What my right hon. Friend was saying was that whereas he had responsibilities to see that people were protected in Northern Ireland, so it was also necessary to deal with inflation in order to protect those who suffer from it.

§ Q4. Mr. Duffy
asked the Prime Minister if he is satisfied with the co-ordination between the Secretary of State for Defence and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on the private possession of firearms in Northern Ireland.

§ The Prime Minister
Yes, Sir.

§ Mr. Duffy
Is the Prime Minister aware that the Secretary of State has indicated that he is considering asking for new powers? Does he not think that the right hon. Gentleman could best demonstrate his good intentions by showing to the people on the Unionist side henceforth that they will be treated exactly the same as people on the anti-Unionist side, and that this is nowhere more urgent than in the private possession of firearms? Will he therefore urge upon his right hon. Friend the need for the revocation of all licences, their issue on the most selective basis, mandatory sentences for those in illegal possession and, finally, impartial spot checks?

§ The Prime Minister
My right hon. Friend has been ensuring that both sides are treated alike. It cannot have escaped the notice of the hon. Gentleman that my right hon. Friend was violently criticised from the Protestant quarter for the firm and stern action which he and the GOC has taken. In fairness to him, that should be acknowledged. My right hon. Friend has already told the House that he will be taking further action about the control of arms. It will be taken under urgent procedure by Order in Council and will be taken in the near future.

§ Mr. Biggs-Davison
Can my right hon. Friend tell me, or can the Secretary of State for the Home Department tell him, whether the firearm which Miss Mary McGuire, a defector from the Provisional IRA, has told the Press she has carried and continues to carry is licensed?

§ The Prime Minister
Without notice I could not answer my hon. Friend's question. I shall endeavour to write to him.

§ Mr. Harold Wilson
Will the right hon. Gentleman spell out a bit further his reference to the Secretary of State's intentions about action under an Order in Council, which I do not believe is fully understood by the House?
Secondly, as we are approaching in a few weeks' time the second anniversary of the date on which the Labour Party demanded action about the private ownership of licensed arms, does the right hon. Gentleman realise that the whole issue is that if all of them are made illegal, except those that are very strictly reissued, there can be spot checks which are not invidious as between one religious community and another, and all of them over a period can be called in because of what we have suggested—namely, mandatory sentences for anyone holding arms, which would then be illegal?

§ The Prime Minister
The Order in Council, which my right hon. Friend will present, will include powers to require that hand guns licensed for personal protection should be brought in for ballistic or any other necessary test. It will also include powers to revoke licences in certain circumstances and to restrict further the numbers of licensed firearm dealers. I think that this will cover quite a considerable amount of the ground which the Leader of the Opposition has often emphasised in the past.

§ Mr. McNamara
While we accept what the Prime Minister has said although we do not regard it as going far enough, may I point out to his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and also to him that half the trouble that arose in Northern Ireland was because moderate men were not listened to when they voiced legitimate grievances about the situation in Northern Ireland and, therefore, the situation was driven into the hands of the extremists? Would it not be a good idea if the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, instead of drawing parallels from the situation in Northern Ireland and trying to equate British trade unionists with that situation, looked more carefully at the situation in Northern Ireland and said "This is what can happen if moderate 1283 and reasonable men with reasonable ideas for the future well-being of their country are not listened to"?

§ The Prime Minister
I have already explained my right hon. Friend's speech. The whole House respected my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for the way in which he listened to the moderate men. On my last visit to Northern Ireland I was criticised for flatly refusing to meet those whom I regarded as extremists.